They don’t say it, but reading further, apparently there are polar bears up there that have sporadically attacked humans. If you leave town, you apparently normally go armed:

https://www.sysselmesteren.no/en/weapon/

Firearms

Due to the polar bear threat on Svalbard, anyone travelling outside the settlements must be equipped with suitable means of scaring off polar bears. The office of the Governor of Svalbard also recommends carrying firearms with you. The processing time for all types of firearms applications is up to 4 weeks.

Given that, my guess is that another factor might be that Svalbard’s polar bears might be interested in digging up non-cremated human corpses.